


Phantom

by ElsieMcClay



Series: Voltron Fics [16]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Voltron Whump Week 2017, phantom pains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-29 21:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12639258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElsieMcClay/pseuds/ElsieMcClay
Summary: Kuron is alone.





	Phantom

**Author's Note:**

> Originally for voltronwhumpweek2017 :)

Shiro had become accustomed to the occasional flash of pain in his arm, though there weren’t any nerves in his arms. Pidge called them phantom pains, and they were never that bad unless he got them straight after having a nightmare. It was a little more frequent now that he was back (along with Kuron, his clone, which he was okay with thank you very much) but he was dealing with it all. Kuron and he had the same memories, the same feelings, the same nightmares, but Kuron wasn’t dealing with it quite as well as Shiro. 

He had the added stress of realizing that he wasn’t actually supposed to exist and he wasn’t his own person but rather another person, a spy without knowing it, an unknowing traitor. The way Keith won’t look at him anymore, Allura scoffs, and Pidge runs into his shoulder (his hip ‘cause she’s small) when they pass him in the halls. He relives the anguish of watching the people he thought were his friends get tortured because he thought he was Shiro, but he was actually a live camera, transmitting video and information to the Galra. 

Everyone hates him. He can see it in their eyes and the way they leave the room when he comes in. Kuron finds himself sitting in the darkness of his room, curled up in a ball with his arm wrapped around his knees, just thinking. Thinking makes his chest hurt. 

Should he even be allowed to be upset or hurt? He did this to the team. He got them all captured and tortured when they were the closest they’d ever been to finding Matt. He feels guilty, yeah, but he’s so, so lonely, too. He shouldn’t be allowed to feel guilty. He shouldn’t be alive. 

Clones don’t cry. They can’t cry. Well, Kuron can’t cry because it hurts his eyes. The cameras. It makes them freak out, and it makes his vision go all weird and dark and stuff. He doesn’t like it. 

At night, when everyone is asleep or in another wing of the castle, Kuron will just kind of stumble around the halls, careful not to wake anyone. He’s like a zombie, mindlessly walking without a destination. 

Sometimes, the paladins will come out of their rooms, yawning into their hands, and Kuron will duck behind the closest wall or couch or training dummy. One time, he was so tired he didn’t notice, but it was Hunk, and he smiled at Kuron. It made Kuron feel a little better, but Keith rammed into him so hard that he fell over in the morning, so he felt worse again. Shiro kept giving him pitying looks, but he never said anything. 

Shiro doesn’t talk very much anymore. Kuron doesn’t either. No one cares that Kuron doesn’t, just that Shiro doesn’t. He figures he deserves it. 

The nightmares are probably one of the worst parts. He’ll hear Shiro screaming from down the hall, and he wants to show him that he sympathizes and Shiro’s not alone. Kuron doesn’t leave. He just listens to the pounding of the feet of the team as they rush to his aid. 

He has the same nightmares. On different nights, maybe, but he’s alone in his own cold sweat-stained sheets with no one to comfort him. He usually makes himself stop screaming the moment he forces his eyes open. No one comes running. He can’t help but feel all the more dark and cold when there’s not even so much as a door opening to check if he’s okay. 

One night, it’s worse than the rest. His robotic arm had been acting up and bothering him all day, so he had taken it off. He hated the scars on his stump, but he just stayed in his room. No one came to check on him. 

At some point, he fell asleep. He wakes up to an itch on his arm, but when he went to scratch it and go back to sleep, his hand fell upon the empty space where his arm was supposed to be. The itch travels up the arm that’s not there and stops at what he has left. It’s suddenly a searing, mind-numbing pain, and he can’t help the scream that claws its way up his throat. It just keeps getting worse, and he can’t stop screaming and writhing.

“Kuron, Kuron calm down,” someone is telling him frantically. There are hot tears rolling down his face. This is so much worse than anything the Galra put him through. Well, this is the aftermath of something the Galra put him–or, uh, Shiro–through. “Sh, sh, sh, sh.” Kuron is taking a few deep breaths as the pain fades. There’s someone running their hand through his hair (which he’s been growing out, so it’s around his ears now).

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on tumblr at elsiemcclay!!!


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